Hand stamp device



Dec. 9, 1952 B. K; SLONNEGER 2,629,731

HAND STAMP DEVICE Filed March 15, 1950 INVENTOR BRUCE K. SLONNEGER HIS ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 9, 1 952 7 2,620,731 v HAN D STAMP DEVICE Bruce K. SIonnegerQDayton, Ohio, assignor to The National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Maryland Application March 15, 1950, Serial No. 149,746.

This invention relates to a hand stamp device consisting of a handle and a plurality of printing members cooperable therewith, a selected printing member being held magnetically to the handle upon being applied thereto.

The invention in its most economical 'form provides'a magnet in the handle and ferro-magnetic material in each of the printing members, such being preferred in place of a magnet in each printing member and ferro-magnetic material in the handle, as magnets cost more than the ferro-magnetic material. In view of this the invention is not to be limited to the form of the invention wherein the magnet is in the handle.

Moreover, inasmuch as type members may be made of ferro-magnetic material such as iron and steel, or even of magnetic material, the entire type member may be magnetically active. On the other hand the type may be of non-magnetic material such as rubber, in which case the ferro-magnetic material, or magnetic material, by which the type is attracted to and attached to the handle, may be joined to the type by mechanical interlock or by an adhesive.

The most convenient and useful, and hence the preferred form of the invention, includes the use of the porous rubber printing type, which may be impregnated with ink, which have attached thereto ferro-magnetic plates which form type members which may be held by a handle which is magnetic. The entire handle may be made of magnetic material or a magnet may be secured in an otherwise non-magnetic handle, wood being preferred on the grounds of economy.

Means is also provided for detaching an attached type member by mechanically pushing the type member far enough away from the handle to escape the magnetic action thereof.

Hand stamps are widely used now in marking prices on articles in self-serve stores, such as groceries, and a great number of individual stamps are needed to indicate the prices of a great variety of goods.

At the present time between eighty and one hundred stamps are needed. These stamps are small and require a handle of some means to hold them for use. To provide a handle for each stamp is costly and a group or set of eighty or a hundred individual stamps each with a handle is unwieldly from a bulk standpoint.

The present invention provides a set of type with a common handle which avoids the cost and bulk of price marking sets as heretofore known.

Therefore it is an object of the invention to 2 Claims. (01. 101-405) UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE provide a handle which holds .a type member by magnetic attraction.

It is another object of the invention to provide a handle which may hold any selected one of a plurality of type members by magnetic attraction.

It isa still further object of the invention to providesuch a device in which a means is provided in the handle to detach a type member attached thereto magnetically.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a device in which ink impregnated porous resilient type is used.

of the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of the handle;

Fig. 2 is a View of the handle being applied to a type member held in a tray, a portion of the handle being shown in section to show the magnet and disengaging means;

Fig. 3 shows the handle of Fig. 2 after the type member has been attached to it and extracted from the tray;

Fig. 4 shows release of the type member after it has been returned to the tray;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a tray holding five type members, the plate of one being broken away to reveal the type body beneath;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a type member looked at from the type face; and

Fig. 7 is a section of the type member of Fig. 6 on the line 1-! thereof.

The handle consists of a shaft 20 having a conical end 2!. An axial hole is provided in the handle, running the length thereof to accommodate pusher rod 22 having an enlarged head 23 with a collar24 which acts as the upper rest for a spring 25. The conical end of the handle is counterbored to receive a horseshoe magnet 26 with its poles pointing outwardly. The magnet is bored at the arch to receive push rod 22 which is enlarged as shown at 21 to keep the rod from being withdrawn from the handle.

Spring 25 normally holds the rod in the position shown in Figs. 2 and 3, but by exerting pressure on head 23 it may be forced downward against the counter-urge of spring 25 to the position shown in Fig. 4 where end 21 of the rod is beyond the end of the conical end 2| of the handle.

Type body 28, preferably madeof porous resilient rubbery material impregnated with ink, has attached thereto, as by cementing, on the nonprinting side, .a ferro magnetic disc-like plate 29, such as steel, of a size to fit in the wider diameter bore 30 (see Fig. 4) of the conical end of the handle.

As the handle is placed over the type member, as shown in Fig. 2, resting in aperture 3! in a rubber tray 32, plate 29 is attracted to the magnet and the type member thus attached to the handle may be extracted from the tray as shown in Fig. 3.

To release the type member from the handle the type body of the type member is reinserted in the hole in the tray and the rod pushed down to disengage the plate 29 from the magnet. The handle is then ready to be used for engaging another type member.

A section of a tray 33 is shown in Fig. 5 holding five type members with money values printed on the plates. The handle may be used to extract, hold and replace any one of these type members in the manner described. The tray may be enlarged as desired, to accommodate any required number of type members.

The specified materials for the handle proper and type body are not critical and therefore the invention is not limited in that respect. For instance, the entire type member may be ferromagnetic as would be the case with steel type.

what is claimed is:

1. In combination, a cylindrical handle having a longitudinal bore and having a counterbore at the bottom end; a horse-shoe magnet secured in the counterbore of the handle arch end in, there being a hole in the arch of the magnet in line with the longitudinal bore and the magnet poles being slightly within the rim of the counterbore; a type member having a. ferro-magnetic portion which fits the counterbore and when placed therein is held by the magnet; and a pusher rod extending through the bore of the handle, extending outwardly at the top end and through the hole in the arch of the magnet, so that inward movement of the rod by pressure exerted on the top end will push off the type member if it is being held by the magnet.

2. The device of claim 1 in which the rod is spring urged toward the top end of the handle and in which the bottom end of the rod is enlarged, so it will not pass through the hole in the magnet, whereby the rod is retained in the handle.

BRUCE K. SLONNEG-ER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 878,007 Kirchner Feb. 4, 1908 1,001,689 Rogers Aug. 29, 1911 1,518,727 Bornstein Dec. 9, 1924 2,427,765 Chollar Sept. 23, 1947 

